This note is about our experiences of many years of bringing up kids in a bush setting and how the skills learnt translated into a single recent event as our son now 18 moves out of school and into the adult world.
The major motocross race meeting of the year for our large innercity club has just been held.
There are 5 races per class held over 2 days.
This year our trip priorites have been to ride the Simpson dessert
and the
Border track on bikes with our son, but its also final year at high school and this has had to take precedence, so many other racing activities have been stopped.
However endurance rides like the Simpson had gone
well, with an unexpected winning of the
Birdsville bike races whilst passing thru. The constant grind of jumping
sand dune after
sand dune hour after hour had also kept our fitness and race prepardness levels up.
The final year exams were last wednesday, and while most of the kids were now preparing for "Schoolies" we now had just two days to convert the bike from an enduro desert bike to its bare essentials for ours sons ride in the big race.
His RMZ 250 4 stroke is a good bike but in our top motocross class the 4 strokes have to race against similar sized 2-stoke 250's.
There was no chance our sons bike could win on speed and even less when we found out that one of the states top riders was coming down to ride, and was bringing his faster 2-stroke for the 5 race series.
The day before race day was miserable but we managed to drag out the tyre pliers , fit new bike tyres between showers and remove the electrics required for desert trips and were on the start line at 9am anixous and ready to go.
But what luck! the pro 2-stroke rider hadn't shown up - we learnt later that he had missed the train and would arrive an hour late.
Now in race 1 we had a chance to build up a bit of a points lead, and lock in a placing which would be a great way to end an eventful year.
Our son started
well but after 8 of 9 laps in the lead crashed out the bike and winded himself such that even after he got going again he could only finish 2nd last.
Our possible points gift had been blown.
To win now we would have to win the remaining 4 races ,an impossible task.
Especially as the missing pro-rider had now turned up at the track
ready for race 2 which was about to start.
Race 2 began with an excellant start as our bike took the lead but by the first corner the two more powerful 2-strokes had taken over and blasted thru.
The race was a progression lap after lap and we pulled in 3rd. Leading the 4 strokes and while a hundred meters behind the pro-rider we had keep within touch of the 2nd 2-stroke.
This year the races had been lengthened to a full 10 minutes + 1 lap.
This is seriously hard work and even with only 2 races down the toll was beginning to show on eveybody.
The first "Break" of the day then occurred as a rider in another class slid just in front of where I was flag marshalling, hitting a tyre and taking out his collabone.
Two more accidents soon followed and within half an hour all of the local hospitals 3 ambulances were queued up trackside as the patients were prepared.
The first rider down was told that he couldn't be operated on till to-morrow and hence refused to get into the
ambulance and insisted on staying to watch his mates races.
After some arguements, someone gave him a greenstick and he was in fairyland and was bundled into the
ambulance without further protest.
By this timme two unmarked police cars had shown up just checking on things.
Even the helicopter gave a flypass, but things seemed to settle and racing began again.
Watching this, all we could do was to get our son-rider to rest and take it easy, whilst the others were carrying on and talking up the results and various incidents.
Recently the Patrol had been modified to have beds inside it for the Pryennes trip and an enforced rest was had by the rider in readiness for the days last race.
The days last race went
well, while we had no chance against the pro-rider on the 2-stroke we managed to outrace the 2nd 2-stroke by a bike length and finish the days events in overall 3rd
spot which should make the podium. This would at least be some reward for all the hard work studying whilst his mates were practicing at the track.
Next day - race four began, it looked like a re-run of the previous days with the pro-rider set to win his 3rd straight race whilst our bike would fight it out for 2nd place against the other 2-stroke.
Coming over a tabletop on the back straight the pro-riders bike was near horizontal to the ground as it flew the 70ft before its landing, somehow he hadn't corrected properly and the front wheel washed out and he landed hard on his front leg kneepad. The hit was so voilent that as we learned later the carbon fibre "unbreakable knee pad" had cracked as it saved his leg.
Our son and the 2nd 2-stroke were already into the jumps upramp and now side by side in the air.
They just had to make the best of where they were to land.
The landing favoured us, and our son held onto the lead for a heart stopping last three laps taking out his only win of the meeting. The pro-rider made an impressive effort to get up
after his fall and ride like the wind to close
the gap finishing 3rd.
There had been a few other incidents with other riders resulting in marshalls disqualifying them or reducing the points and a tally of positions was announced which had us in 2nd place overall with the pro-rider in 3rd place, but certain to win the deciding last race.
Any of 3 riders now had the potential to win the event. If we finished 2nd ahead of the 2nd 2-stroke and just behind the pro-rider we might just win the championship on a countback.
The tension was pretty thick as the flag dropped for the last time and with a beautifully executed start our bike again took an initial lead again only to be swamped by the two 2-strokes at the first
corner. The pro-rider cleared out ahead as usual and left the pack to fight it out.
We were 3rd, and we only needed that extra placing to have a winning chance.
The race was on and the competition ferocious. For 6 laps the bikes thundered around the track with ours swapping
places between 2nd and 3rd with the 2nd 2-stroke. By now the 3 lead bikes were beginning to lap the others and just then one of the tail enders lost it, going down hard.
The next 20 seconds were very long as the tail ender rolled over and over and then the rider just lay, unmoving, right in the middle of the track.
Our bike and the 2nd 2-stroke swerved either side of the fallen rider.
Ours came out in front and rounded the next bend finally in 2nd place with a chance of winning if only the rider could hang on for 3 more laps.
The yellow flag then came out and my son slowed the bike, whereapon he was passed by the other bike under flags. The officals were naturally pre-occupied with the unconsious rider laying in the middle of the track and for the first time in the fifty races that weekend the Red flag was brought out and the race stopped.
Several issues now needed sorting out !
10 minutes later the downed rider was up and apparently not seriously hurt, but still delirous to the situation he had caused.
The race was more than 1/2 over when stopped and hence was declared - it would not be re-run.
An offical had seen our bike passed under the yellow flag and we were re-placed 2nd.
An overall 5 race countback of points was undertaken and as we held our breath our son was declared overall winner of the championship by the barest of margins.
We are probably overproud parents but for us this event will represent the end of era in which we have spent 18 or so years taking kids and to the bush, often with bikes.
Generating an interest in exloring things along our beaches and across the deserts and into the mountains.
All the time teaching them to drive, change tyres, improvise with that they have whilst dodging bureaucy and officals who have reduced any realistic alternative to learning these skills whilst in a parallel world some of the other parents battle with drugs drink and re-habilitation centres.